# Dear Republicans: The debt ceiling? Again?! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 17, 2012, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190 "2012-05-17T08:12:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190/261 "2012-05-21T23:31:38Z")
> [@dngnb8](#): > > For me to be partisan would have to mean I support Bush or Obama, right? Why in the world would it mean that? Current Republicans HATE Bush. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190/262 "2012-05-21T23:34:00Z")
Sure, now that it’s fashionable. ---
**Author:** ![dngnb8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@dngnb8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dngnb8)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190/263 "2012-05-21T23:36:08Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Why in the world would it mean that? Current Republicans HATE Bush. No tags so I cant tell youre being sarcastic or not. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190/264 "2012-05-21T23:57:08Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Current Republicans HATE Bush. What makes you think that? ISTM they mostly would prefer to think he never existed, so they can keep up the cover story that the colossal mess he left behind is Obama’s fault, and that what we need to fix it is a heavier dose of the policies that created it. When do you ever hear Bush mentioned by a GOP partisan? Is he ever even interviewed, or quoted, or asked even informally for his views or his help on anything by his own frickin’ party? Even Romney walked away as fast as he could from the endorsement of a Republican who was president only 3 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190/265 "2012-05-22T00:19:13Z")
> [@dngnb8](#): > > I would like a law to be about the title. Im tired of back room dealings of gifting pork in laws that people dont know about. > > What, you wont vote for this? How about a 1 mil budget increase on the study to the University in your district on why Fly’s eat shit? > > Remove a lot of this crap and watch the budget fall. I agree, up to a point. The backscratching and political dealing frustrate me, too. But a lot of it turns out to have more merit than your example. I think Congress should be a lot more disciplined in their spending, but those earmarks really are a drop in the bucket. It’s not really relevant to the situation at hand, though. We’re talking about money that has been appropriated. It was proposed, discussed, debated, revised, voted on, and approved by the bodies legally entrusted to do so. To try to hold it up now on procedural grounds is a political hissy fit. And to be so utterly inflexible as to rule out half the chance of cutting the deficit (All spending cuts! No tax increase!) is even more unreasonable. > [@](#): > > The last stimulus should have been used to reset all those ARMs to fixed low interest loans. This would have put the funds in the little guys hands. People wouldnt have had to walk away from so many foreclosures (bank issue to this day). One man’s solution is another man’s pork. How would your stimulus look to someone like my mother who paid off her mortgage, free and clear, with no help from the government? Or someone who has been saving for a house they could truly afford, and didn’t take the risk on a mortgage that might escalate faster than they could pay for? To them, your solution is pork; rewarding people who made less responsible choices. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190/266 "2012-05-22T19:15:58Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > There is apparently a perfectly legal, statutory solution to the debt crisis (assuming it comes up again, and it certainly looks like it will) - [platinum coins](http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/07/28/282471/the-platinum-coin-option/): One of the prerequisites to inflating our way out of debt is to have a budget taht will be balanced for the forseeable future because you will not be able to borrow after you pull something like that. The thing is, if you have your deficit under control. You don’t really have to worry about inflating our way out, you will simply be able to pay your way out. > [@dngnb8](#): > > LOL at half the story… > JOHN: No. In order to pay the bills you have to stop spending money on superfluous shit. Total receipts authorized by congress are $2.469 trillion dollars (about 1.1 trillion short of our appropriations). Social security is $778 billion Defense is $716 billion Medicare is $484 billion Interst on the national debt is $224 billion Veteran’s Services is $129 billion This leaves $138 billion for everything else including: Income Security $579 billion Health (mostly Medicaid): $240 billion Education, Training, Employment and Social Services $139 billion Transportation $102 billion Show me how we can get anywhere CLOSE to balancing the budget just by getting rid of superfluous shit. The sort of stuff you seem to be upset about accounts for a tiny sliver of our budget. If we got rid of all of that stuff our budget deficit might go from 1.1 trillion to 1 trillion (and I doubt it you could identify 100 billion dollars in spending cuts that Republicans would agree on). > **[2012 United States federal budget](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_federal_budget)** > > The 2012 United States federal budget was the budget to fund government operations for the fiscal year 2012, which lasted from October 1, 2011, through September 30, 2012. The original spending request was issued by President Barack Obama in February 2011. That April, the Republican-held House of Representatives announced a competing plan, The Path to Prosperity, emboldened by a major victory in the 2010 Congressional elections associated with the Tea Party movement. The budget plans were bo... Simply put, you are refusing to work more hours to make up for a 33% gap in income/spending because you don’t agree with about 3% of the spending. > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > What makes you think that? ISTM they mostly would prefer to think he never existed, so they can keep up the cover story that the colossal mess he left behind is Obama’s fault, and that what we need to fix it is a heavier dose of the policies that created it. > > When do you ever hear Bush mentioned by a GOP partisan? Is he ever even interviewed, or quoted, or asked even informally for his views or his help on anything by his own frickin’ party? Even Romney walked away as fast as he could from the endorsement of a Republican who was president only 3 years ago. The Republican party wants to pretend that they are entirely re-engineered while they make the Bush tax cuts the central platform of their economic plan. ---
**Author:** ![dngnb8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@dngnb8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dngnb8)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190/267 "2012-05-22T22:05:57Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I agree, up to a point. The backscratching and political dealing frustrate me, too. But a lot of it turns out to have more merit than your example. I think Congress should be a lot more disciplined in their spending, but those earmarks really are a drop in the bucket. > > It’s not really relevant to the situation at hand, though. We’re talking about money that has been appropriated. It was proposed, discussed, debated, revised, voted on, and approved by the bodies legally entrusted to do so. To try to hold it up now on procedural grounds is a political hissy fit. And to be so utterly inflexible as to rule out half the chance of cutting the deficit (All spending cuts! No tax increase!) is even more unreasonable. Its funny, I said 150 million was huge and someone said it wasnt. I think it is more then a drop. More so because we can ill afford it. JMHO, spending what you dont have magnify’s things Rather then push through secret cash deals, the contents of anything passed should be pertinent to the topic. To me there is something inherently wrong with buying votes in this way > [@](#): > > One man’s solution is another man’s pork. How would your stimulus look to someone like my mother who paid off her mortgage, free and clear, with no help from the government? Or someone who has been saving for a house they could truly afford, and didn’t take the risk on a mortgage that might escalate faster than they could pay for? To them, your solution is pork; rewarding people who made less responsible choices. There are many social programs out there that do not benefit those people who did the right thing. The “Stimulus” was named because it wasnt targeting your mom, but targeting the economy. I didnt have an ARM, my loan was fixed. I wouldnt have benefited from my selection either. I kind of view it this way. It was Bush (The Government) who let the rabid banks loose. The people negatively effected by that should get the bail out. The bail out would have made banks more stable. The solution would have prevented a housing market crash that also affected the new build housing market. These two economic indicators would have been shored up, presenting a healthier economy. ---
**Author:** ![dngnb8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@dngnb8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dngnb8)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190/268 "2012-05-22T22:10:35Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > One of the prerequisites to inflating our way out of debt is to have a budget taht will be balanced for the forseeable future because you will not be able to borrow after you pull something like that. The thing is, if you have your deficit under control. You don’t really have to worry about inflating our way out, you will simply be able to pay your way out. > > Total receipts authorized by congress are $2.469 trillion dollars (about 1.1 trillion short of our appropriations). > > Social security is $778 billion > Defense is $716 billion > Medicare is $484 billion > Interst on the national debt is $224 billion > Veteran’s Services is $129 billion > > This leaves $138 billion for everything else including: > > Income Security $579 billion > Health (mostly Medicaid): $240 billion > Education, Training, Employment and Social Services $139 billion > Transportation $102 billion > > Show me how we can get anywhere CLOSE to balancing the budget just by getting rid of superfluous shit. The sort of stuff you seem to be upset about accounts for a tiny sliver of our budget. If we got rid of all of that stuff our budget deficit might go from 1.1 trillion to 1 trillion (and I doubt it you could identify 100 billion dollars in spending cuts that Republicans would agree on). > > [2012 United States federal budget - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_federal_budget) > > Simply put, you are refusing to work more hours to make up for a 33% gap in income/spending because you don’t agree with about 3% of the spending. > > The Republican party wants to pretend that they are entirely re-engineered while they make the Bush tax cuts the central platform of their economic plan. My suggestion wasnt made as a Silver Bullet Fix. In any negative fiscal event, you have to do several things Spend Less Earn More JMHO, the money isnt in raising brackets, but limiting write offs. Simply raising brackets across the board puts more burden on Joe the Plumber (sorry couldnt resist) You need to limit write offs. By exposing more income to the current brackets will affect the people most want targeted. The key to Gov Income is not only to keep the dollar exposed to taxation, but keeping it moving through the tax pool. When dollars exit the tax pool and dont return, you get problems [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-republicans-the-debt-ceiling-again-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you/622190.md?page=13)